Ray Stevens

Induction Year: 1980

Birth Name: Harold Ray Ragsdale

Birth Date: 01-24-1939

Place of Birth: Clarkdale, Georgia

One of American music's most successful writers of novelty songs, Ray Stevens
is known for zany hits including "Ahab the Arab," "Gitarzan," "The Streak" and
"Shriner's Convention." His talents go far beyond humor, though:
Stevens has also made marks as a singer, producer, music publisher and
arranger, and one of his best-known songs is the uplifting pop ballad
"Everything Is Beautiful."

Born Harold Ray Ragsdale, Stevens played piano as a child and began working as
a DJ and a musician in Atlanta when he was 16 years old. He studied music at
Georgia State University and signed with Mercury Records while still a student.
His first pop hit came in 1961, with "Jeremiah Peabody's Poly Unsaturated Quick
Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills," which chuckled
its way into the pop Top 40. A year after "Jeremiah" hit the charts, Stevens
moved to Nashville, where he worked as a session musician, singer and arranger
when not recording his own hits.

Stevens' first pop Top 10 hit came in 1962 with "Ahab the Arab," which he wrote
the night before he recorded it. Stevens created the story of Ahab, "the Sheik
of the Burning Sand" who rode a camel named Clyde, and guessed during the
recording session as to what kind of noise a camel might make. After the song
was featured on radio stations across the country, Stevens visited a zoo in
Baltimore and found that the noise he'd voiced for Clyde was in fact quite
similar to what a real camel sounds like.

By 1970, Stevens was known for funny stuff, having notched hits with "Ahab,"
"Gitarzan" and "Harry the Hairy Ape." But he broke through at decade's turn
with #1 pop hit "Everything Is Beautiful." The sing-along anthem sold more than
a million copies and earned Stevens a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal
Performance.

Stevens scored another #1 pop hit with "The Streak," a novelty about the '70s
fad for dashing around naked, and notched self-written country hits with
"Shriner's Convention," "Nashville" and "Bridget the Midget (The Queen of the
Blues)." He also had numerous hits as an interpreter of others' songs, including "Mississippi Squirrel Revival." In the
1990s, he opened a successful theater in Branson, Missouri. He has remained
active as a writer, producer, music publisher and performer, even returning to
the country charts in the new century with "Osama – Yo' Mama," his melodic
raspberry to terrorist ringleader Osama bin Laden.